NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies (ELFT)

Evaluation of Latent Friction Ridge Technology

As of May 2020, NIST is relaunching its latent fingerprint technology research and broadening it to all types of friction ridges, including palms. The new evaluation picks up and greatly enhances the concept of operations described in ELFT-EFS Evaluation #2.

Latent Fingerprint Technologies: Extended Feature Sets (ELFT-EFS)

In November 2009 we announced the start of the Latent Fingerprint Technoloiges: Extended Feature Sets (ELFT-EFS). The purpose of this evaluation is to determine the effectiveness of human latent examiner marked fingerprint features on latent fingerprint search accuracy, specifically with respect to the comparative accuracy of image-only searches, image+minutiae searches, and image+extended feature searches.

ELFT-EFS Evaluation #2

ELFT-EFS Evaluation #2 commenced 21 June 2010. The evaluation was open to all developers of latent fingerprint identification systems. 

The latent and exemplar images and features in Evaluation #2 will be similar but not identical to those in Evaluation #1. The API and test protocols used by for Evaluation #2 will closely follow (but are not limited to) those specified in Evaluation #1. A major change from Evaluation 1 is that participants may specify the subtests on which NIST will execute their SDKs.

The purpose of ELFT-EFS Evaluation #2 is the continued performance evaluation of AFEM (image-only) and latent fingerprint examiner assisted (image+manual feature markup) based latent fingerprint identification technologies. Technological progress will be measured with respect to prior evaluations with the expectation that participants in previous tests may incorporate lessons learned from previous results and/or miss analysis conducted at NIST, while opening registration to new participants.

ELFT-EFS Evaluation #1

The ELFT-EFS Evaluation 1 commenced on 2 August 2009 and was limited to all ELFT-EFS Public Challenge participants that submitted results by the 28 June 2009 ELFT-EFS Public Challenge deadline. Anonymous participation in ELFT-EFS Evaluation 1 was not permitted.

ELFT_EFS Evaluation 1 evaluated the accuracy of latent matching using features marked by experienced human latent fingerprint examiners. The purpose of this test was to evaluate the current state of the art in latent feature-based matching, by comparing the accuracy of searches using images alone with searches using different feature sets. The features sets included the current IAFIS latent feature set, and different subsets of the Extended Feature Set (EFS) features proposed by CDEFFS . A key result of the test was to determine when human feature markup is effective. Because human markup is expensive in terms of time, effort, and expertise, there is a need to know when image-only searching is adequate, and when the additional effort of marking minutiae and extended features is appropriate.

ELFT-EFS Public Challenge

The ELFT-EFS Public Challenge is a practice evaluation: an open-book test on public data to validate formats and protocols. The results are not for substantive analysis, and participants will remain anonymous in their results. The public challenge will be conducted from 15 April 2009 through 15 June 2009. The ELFT-EFS Public Challenge instructions and datasets were finalized on 15 April 2009.

Latent Testing Workshop 2009

NIST announced NIST Latent Fingerprint Testing Workshop 2009, to be held on March 19 and 20 at NIST. This workshop will present and discuss the results of the recently completed NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies (ELFT) Phase II -- which evaluated the performance of "lights-out" encoding and matching of latent images. This workshop also provided a venue for the upcoming NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies: Extended Feature Sets (ELFT-EFS).

Evaluation of Latent Fingerprints Technologies 2007 (ELFT07)

NIST announced in November 2006 the NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprints Technologies, ELFT07. The test is aimed at assessing the core capabilities of current automatic latent matching algorithms. The test is described in the the evaluation concept document. The evaluation will assess technologies submitted to NIST as software development kits which implement the Latent Testing API.

Latent Testing Workshop 2006

NIST successfully hosted the first Latent Testing Workshop in April 2006. This workshop was conducted to canvas expert opinion in the area of evaluation of automated latent fingerprint matching algorithms. 

Announcements:

October 23, 2013: Latent Services Best Practices

Presentation: Best Practices & Time Utilization in Searching Local, State and Federal AFIS

Provides selected statistics on State and Federal Agency latent fingerprint searches. Discusses methods for improving performance (individualization) for latent searches. Covers steps toward greater automation in the future, such as increased reliance on image-only searches.